A 72-year-old driver who caused life-threatening and life-changing injuries to a father-of-one when he performed an unsafe u-turn has been given a suspended prison sentence.

Bradford Crown Court heard today how Nicholas Storozuk had been undertaking the manoeuvre in his Kia car on the B6480 in August 2023 because he and his wife had been going for Sunday lunch at a nearby golf club and he had missed his turn-off.

The defendant ignored the solid double white lines on the 60mph road at Buckhaw Brow near Giggleswick and as he carried out the manoeuvre the complainant’s Honda motorcycle came round the corner and crashed into the driver’s door.

The motorcyclist, from Drighlington and who now has no recollection of the collision, was thrown from his machine and prosecutor Gerald Hendron said he suffered extensive serious injuries.

The complainant was unconscious on the ground and bleeding from his jugular vein and a passing motorist assisted him by compressing the wounds to his neck until the emergency services arrived.

The man was airlifted to Leeds General Infirmary where he had to be ventilated and underwent surgery to remove his spleen and part of his bowel.

Mr Hendron said the man was unconscious in an intensive care unit for two weeks and was not discharged from hospital for two months.

Storozuk, of Sydney Terrace, Trawden, Lancashire, told police in a prepared statement said he could not see any traffic coming as he performed the u-turn and said he very much regretted the injuries caused to the motorcyclist.

In a victim personal statement read out by Mr Hendron the complainant said it had been very hard to come to terms with his injuries and his inability to do things for himself left him feeling like he had lost all his dignity.

He said his life had been turned upside down.

The court heard that the complainant had also suffered permanent loss of hearing in his right ear.

Storozuk pleaded guilty at a hearing before Harrogate Magistrates' Court to causing serious bodily harm by careless driving and today he was sentenced to nine months in jail suspended for a year.

He must also comply with an electronically monitored night-time home curfew for the next four months and Judge Kirstie Watson banned him from driving for a year.

Barrister Richard Dawson, for Storozuk, said it was a tragic case which had had catastrophic consequences for all those connected with it.

He said his client was a 72-year-old man with an otherwise impeccable and positive good character who had never picked up any penalty points in fifty-some years of driving.

“This was entirely out of character for him,” said Mr Dawson.

“He did not set out that day intending to cause damage or harm or injury to anybody.”

He said the defendant had accepted entirely that he was to blame for the collision, but it had been careless driving over a very few seconds and over a short distance.

Judge Watson said the location of the u-turn manoeuvre had been unsafe with vehicles having little time to react to any obstruction in the carriageway.

She said the presence of the solid double white lines increased Storozuk’s culpability for the offence.

The judge said it was clear from the victim personal statements in the case that lives had been changed forever as a result of the incident.

Judge Watson said nothing she could say or do could restore the complainant to full health or take away any of the anguish and suffering that he and those who loved him had suffered over the past year.